


Notes on the End of the Universe

by SilentNorth



Series: Astronomy: A Study [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Astronomy, College AU, Late Night Calls, M/M, Oneshot, observable universe, space drabbles, space stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 14:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8449153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentNorth/pseuds/SilentNorth
Summary: Sometimes when everything feels far away, it only takes one call in the early hours of the morning to feel close again.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Observable Universe: consists of at least two trillion galaxies and other matter, not enough time has passed for light to travel to Earth in order for us to see beyond.

Nothing is brighter than waking up in the middle of the night and staring directly into his phone. Not the light to his room. Not the sun. Nothing. It’s made even brighter by the smiling picture that’s flashing along with _Incoming Call_.

At first, Akaashi grumbles and starts wondering why he started sleeping with his phone under his pillow. He’s in the middle of swearing under his breath and forming half threats he’ll say to the person calling, but his brain is too tired to think them all the way through. They have morning practice tomorrow in—he looks at the time and groans—much too soon. He pauses at the name as it grabs his attention below the time. It should’ve been the first thing he saw if he weren’t so tired. The cruel words slowly developing on his lips dissolve instantly.

“Bokuto-san.”

That’s why he leaves his phone under his pillow each night.

“Akaashi! You’re up! I thought you’d be sleeping by now,” Bokuto rambles off immediately.

It’s been nearly two months, Akaashi can’t help but to think. He tries to swallow that down, tries to keep the bitterness from his voice. Just hearing his voice on the other end makes forgetting easy.

Akaashi yawns and makes sure Bokuto can’t hear it when he says, “Yes, I’m up.”

He’s relieved.

“Okay, good.” Bokuto’s relieved, too. “I have a question and I couldn’t think of anyone else to call.”

Rolling onto his stomach, Akaashi switches the phone to his opposite ear, propped up on his elbows. Bokuto’s at university now. Surely Akaashi can’t answer any of his questions. He takes a breath and exhales slowly. “I can try my best, Bokuto-san.” Anything to make this call last.

“Do you know anything about astronomy?”

“Bokuto-san, has Fukurodani ever had astronomy?” he sighs in response. “You haven’t been away for that long.”

“Ohh,” he hums in response. “So that’s a no?”

Akaashi hesitates. “Are you taking an astronomy class?”

They’ve texted a few times. Not much. Akaashi can’t quite remember if Bokuto had ever told him his class schedule. He can’t remember anything, so he’s going to go with no.

“Yes! And I swear the professor hates me!”

Akaashi can guess why that might be.

“But then again,” Bokuto continues more thoughtfully, “I think she hates everyone. Maybe because she’s like way smarter than us and we’re just an intro class. She probably hates how dumb we all are.” He laughs and Akaashi’s chest swells at the sound. Practice has sounded so empty without it. He tries to think back to the last time he’d heard it.

No. He clears his throat, interrupting both his and Bokuto’s distracting trains of thought. “You said you had a question, Bokuto-san?”

“Oh! Right!” he chirps. There’s a moment of silence. “Well, it’s not really a question, I guess. Now that I think about it,” he adds sheepishly.

Akaashi plants his face into his pillow. Don’t look at the clock, he tells himself silently. It’s only getting later. Looking at the time won’t make Bokuto get to his point any faster. There’s a war going on inside of him. He wants to close his eyes, allow himself to be lulled back to sleep, but, on the other hand, he wants this call to last forever.

Still he can practically feel the sleepless night carving dark circles under his eyes.

“So we can see pretty far out in to the universe, right?”

Akaashi grunts into his pillow even though he knows absolutely nothing about astronomy. Best just to go along with Bokuto.

“Like even far beyond the Milky Way. There’s the local group, which is a bunch of other galaxies. There’s so many of them, Akaashi! I’ll have to find the picture and send it to you. They look like tiny little stars, but each is just—another Milky Way inside—it’s so huge! And those are seven million light years away. Can you imagine?”

Akaashi can’t imagine. It’s a number that’s too big to even comprehend. Like the scientists who came up with it are the only ones who really understand a scale that size.

“And then there’s the observable universe. It’s the farthest we can see and it’s just—it’s _huge_ , Akaashi. And you know what? The reason we can’t see beyond it is because there hasn’t been enough time for light to travel to us yet.”

Akaashi can feel his stomach plummet. He convinces himself it’s because what Bokuto is saying is just plain ridiculous, but also the way he’s saying it. Like he’s completely blown away. The way his voice just carries on and on, so enthralled by what he’s talking about. Akaashi thinks he could listen to him go on like this forever. And Bokuto would probably take him up on that offer, too, especially since he never seems to run out of things to say. Akaashi doesn’t think he could anyway.

“Its—unimaginable, Bokuto-san,” he decides to reply because it is. And if that’s true, then they really are just insignificant specks in the universe. He thinks he remembers something about the sun’s light taking eight minutes to reach the earth. If it exploded, they wouldn’t know for those eight long minutes. But for there to be light out there that hadn’t had time to make that journey, and for it to have had billions of years of existence to do so, that’s…very large. Maybe the universe is already ending around them, all the way out there at the edges of the observable universe. They’d never know. They’d be long gone by the time they did.

“I don’t know,” Bokuto says, sounding like he’s finally run out of steam, worn down even. Tired. “I just…watched a video on all that and needed to tell someone. It’s a bit lonely figuring that out, sitting in my dorm room, alone.”

“Maybe just lonely in general,” Akaashi says softly. He hopes Bokuto’s not about to pout hardcore. He doesn’t have the energy to deal with Bokuto’s ‘dejected mode.’

He hears Bokuto huffing out a breath over the receiver. “Yeah.” He groans and it sounds like he’s moving about restlessly on his bed. Akaashi imagines them both lying in bed, talking over the phone like this, closer in this space together than they physically are. It’s a bit poetic, he thinks. Then shakes that romantic crap out of his head. “I don’t know, Akaashi. The universe sure is terrifying.”

“I think it’s nice,” Akaashi murmurs, a small smile on his lips as he flips over onto his back, staring up to his dark ceiling.

“Huh?” erupts from the phone. Bokuto hadn’t been expecting that kind of turn.

“I don’t know,” Akaashi starts slowly. “I guess knowing how far away all those things are makes it seem like you’re less as far.” The sentence ends awkwardly, as if chopped and spaced out all wrong. He’s glad Bokuto is actually as far away as he is so he doesn’t have to see how red Akaashi’s face is probably turning. He clears his throat. “I’m happy.” He’s wearing a bigger smile when he says it, despite the awkwardness.

There’s a long moment of silence. Akaashi’s afraid the call got lost or dropped or something. He pulls the phone away to make sure Bokuto’s still there. He is, but it doesn’t sound like it.

It’s odd. Bokuto is usually always filling up the space with his voice.

Now it’s just empty static that seems even emptier in his silence.

“Akaashi!” booms suddenly from the other end and Akaashi nearly drops his phone onto his face.

“Bokuto-san,” he scolds. “Don’t scare me like that.”

“Akaashi! You make me happy, too!” he continues at the same volume, causing Akaashi to wince and hold the phone slightly farther away.

“That’s not exactly what I said.”

“But I know what you mean!”

Now Bokuto is acting like the sleep deprived one. “Go to sleep, Bokuto-san. It’s late. I’m sure you have class in the morning, too.”

It’s quiet again. Akaashi presses the phone closer to his ear again, holding it tightly with both hands. When Bokuto speaks, his voice has dropped. “It feels like you’re right here with me, Akaashi, so maybe you aren’t as far away.”

“Well, definitely closer than the end of the universe.” He can’t help the dryness in the words. He chuckles at his words, but he’s not sure if Bokuto hears.

“I’ll call you again soon, Akaashi. I promise.”

Akaashi could say what he always does.

_Don’t worry about it, Bokuto-san._

_I know you’re busy._

_I know you have classes._

_I know you have practice, too._

_I know you have friends._

_I know you’re busy._

Akaashi turns onto his side, phone squished between his head and his pillow. He doesn’t say any of those things this time,

“Okay, Bokuto-san.”

“I mean it this time, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good night!”

And with a click he’s gone. For all Akaashi knows, he could be all the way at the ends of the universe. At least it will feel that way, until he calls again. And, until then, Akaashi can only hang onto promises.

**Author's Note:**

> Because I am taking an Astronomy course this semester, I felt the need to unleash all this information in a more creative outlet. Also because I have begun NaNoWriMo, this series, Astronomy: A Study, was born.
> 
> If you happen to be curious about space stuff, I am fully open to hearing prompts. You can reach me on here or on my tumblr: [silentmarco](http://silentmarco.tumblr.com)  
> Just be sure to attach some space idea and a pair. I can always use more inspiration!


End file.
